Making People Talk

Getting people to talk is often key to engaging them. With that in mind, I found these five common personality types and what it takes to make them talk interesting (from The Most Dangerous Business Book You’ll Ever Read as profiled in Inc. magazine on April 2011):

Teachers – listen closely and ask lots of questions

Jargon dorks – politely ask them what they mean by key industry terms or acronyms to get them to explain in detail

Complainers – spark a complaint fest by offering a few of your own

Smartypantses – knowingly make an incorrect statement and watch them share information to prove you wrong

Worriers – create the impression that whatever they say is no surprise…”oh, of course”